This invention relates to an apparatus to be installed on an automobile for preventing or extinguishing a fire thereon, and more particularly to such apparatus automatically operable to prevent or extinguish a fire which may break out in an automobile upon collision thereof with another automobile or a nearby building or other structure, or when the automobile has otherwise received a large impact thereon.
A large impact given to an automobile, whether by collision or otherwise, often causes damage to the fuel tank, fuel pipe or fuel pipe fitting thereof with a resultant leakage of vaporized gasoline therefrom. This vaporized gasoline is ignited and starts a fire in the automobile upon contacting an engine portion at an elevated temperature. Such a fire is very dangerous as it does not only burn the automobile, but may also often injure or even kill a person or persons in the automobile or cause damage to a nearby house or other structure. A fire is also started by ignition of such vaporized fuel due to the frictional heat generated upon collision. Sparks produced by short-circuiting of electrical equipment on an automobile also give rise to a fire. The inherent danger of a fire on an automobile is on the increase as the automobile is equipped with an increasing number of different electrical parts or devices, and also as it is equipped with an exhaust gas purifying system for operation at a high temperature.
Despite the obvious danger of a fire on an automobile, however, few countermeasures have been proposed with practical success in the past. That is apparently because it has been difficult to provide a fire fighting apparatus compactly designed for installation in a limited interior space available on an automobile and is automatically brought into sure and effective operation immediately on the occasion of collision or any other impact generating accident.